Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha conveys abstract references to American life with a wry, deadpan sense of humor. His notable "Ruschascapes" subtly blend major artistic movements of the twentieth century, including Pop, Surrealism, and Minimalism, with the imagery and vocabulary of engrained west coast pop culture. Compared to these hyperrealist pop-scription pieces, RuschaÕs photographs seem lackluster and even somber. The swimming pools and parking lots he depicts do, however, illustrate his penchant for reducing and combining common words and simple landscapes to create complex tales of modern society.

A painter, printer, and filmmaker as well as a photographer, Ruscha was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1937. Known for his American landscapes with superimposed slogans, Ruscha's work has been widely exhibited, including recent shows at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, MA; the Austin Museum of Art, TX; the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, UK; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, among many others. In addition, his works are held in major museum collections internationally. His public commissions include a mural commissioned for the Miami-Dane Public Library, FL, and the Great Hall of the Denver Central Library, CO. He recently exhibited, Cotton Puffs, Q-Tips, Smoke and Mirrors: The Drawings of Ed Ruscha and Ed Ruscha and Photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Text © Museum of Contemporary Photography, 2018